Today we’d like to introduce you to Kwadwo Adae

Hi Kwadwo , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

After earning my Masters degree in 2005, I wanted to teach painting on the collegiate level. I sent resumes out and applied for every available teaching position in a 100 mile radius and received exactly zero responses. I sent images and artist statements to galleries in NYC and Philadelphia that had artwork that resonated with me and received absolutely nothing. I had a wife that wanted me to quit painting and become a security guard, a mountain of grad school debt, two babies to feed. and a gift of two months rent on a closet sized studio space in Downtown New Haven to continue my painting practice. I had an epiphany, “Why am I begging these colleges and universities to hire me when I can just open up my own art school and hire myself.” It seemed easier than waiting for some magic situation to happen where someone would give me a chance. I bought a couple of heavily discounted easels from an art store in town that was going out of business and started the Adae Fine Art Academy in 2005. For the last 18 years I’ve been the director of my own independent art school in New Haven teaching drawing and painting and installing murals locally and internationally for the last decade.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

Everybody seems to love murals, and nobody seems to want to pay for them. There’s been a massive amount of trial and error. A great deal of failure, but that’s how you learn. No one just wakes up one day and begins expertly running a successful business of any kind. There are always tough times and beautiful times. Always times of both scarcity and abundance. Figuring out how to be your own boss, bookkeeper, accountant, marketing department, public relations firm, legal department, advertising agency, custodian and everything else a business needs to succeed takes time and patience. Even my toughest days are light years better than working for someone that only has profit margins and greed on their mind.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?

I am a New Haven, CT based visual artist engaged in both a private studio art practice consisting of abstraction, portraiture, and floral paintings in oil; and a public art mural practice rooted deeply in a social justice activism. I am intrigued by portraiture and figurative representation, and I thoroughly enjoy utilizing public art as a means to showcase significant moments in history that have been subverted by mainstream academic audiences. I utilize my public art practice strategically to beautify Black & Brown neighborhoods that have traditionally and historically been the target of federal discriminatory redlining practices and disastrous urban renewal policies. The population of street trees in underserved areas are substantially lower than in neighborhoods historically devoid of redlining programs; thus I have pledged to create street art installations that have street trees planted in conjunction with them to augment the benefits of more trees in our urban forests.

What are your plans for the future?

In 2024 I celebrate ten years of creating public art. I am looking forward to manifesting an opportunity to create a large scale mural on a 5 or 6 story building in the next few years. I was recently accepted into the Arteles Creative Center Residency in Finland where I will immerse myself in Nordic culture and orchestrate the installation of a collaborative mural project with Finnish school children. Practicing the importance in putting paintbrushes and colors in the hands of people around the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kwadwoadae.com/section/269337.html
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kwadwo.adae/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kwadwoadae